Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a refrigerating unit having at least one cooling chamber that is equipped with a storage compartment that is guided in a drawer-like manner and has, at least on its two longitudinal sides lying in the insertion direction, a parallel-guiding device that is formed by a rack-like mating toothed configuration and of two rollers that are coupled at least approximately rigidly to each other. The rollers lie opposite each other at least substantially on the same axis and have an external toothed configuration of identical pitch circle diameter that is able to roll along the mating toothed configuration, in which case either the mating toothed configuration or the rollers are disposed in a positionally fixed manner. European Patent Application EP 07 18 574 A1 discloses a refrigerating unit having a cooling compartment that is equipped with storage compartments that can be pulled out in a drawer-like manner. The larger of the storage compartments supports a door for closing the cooling compartment. The storage compartment that is provided with the door is equipped with a parallel-guiding device. The parallel-guiding device is respectively formed by a rack-like mating toothed configuration provided on the side walls of the cooling compartment and by externally toothed rollers that are provided on the side walls of the storage compartment. The rollers interact with the mating toothed configuration. In such a type of parallel guidance, to avoid an oblique position of the storage compartment arising because the rollers on the storage compartment are not correctly inserted into the mating toothed configuration, a restricted guiding device connected upstream of the mating toothed configuration in the insertion direction of the storage compartment is proposed. The device serves to bring the externally toothed rollers on the storage compartment into engagement with the mating toothed configuration in a movement running at least substantially perpendicularly with respect to the mating toothed configuration. It, therefore, avoids an oblique position during the procedure of inserting the storage compartment into the guides provided in the cooling compartment. In spite of such a measure, it has turned out that if the storage compartment is not correctly maneuvered, misalignment occurs. Specifically, the storage compartment is not prevented from passing into an oblique position in which the externally toothed rollers (rigidly connected to each other per se) move asynchronously with respect to each other during movement of the storage compartment. Also in the oblique position, with the storage compartment in the closed position, a gap arises between its seal and the supporting edge provided for the edge on the housing. Due to the presence of the gap, a rise in temperature of the storage compartment results.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a refrigerating unit that overcomes the hereinafore-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices of this general type and that is able to correct an oblique position of the storage compartment using simple structural measures.
With the foregoing and other objects in view, there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a refrigerating unit, including a cooling chamber having two longitudinal sides, a storage compartment removably guided into and out of the cooling chamber in a movement direction, the storage compartment removably guided into the cooling chamber along the movement direction as far as a closing position, the cooling chamber having a parallel-guiding device disposed on the two longitudinal sides along the movement direction, the parallel-guiding device having a mating toothed configuration, two rollers coupled approximately rigidly to each other, lying opposite each other at least substantially on a given axis, and each having an external toothed configuration with an identical pitch circle diameter to be rollingly coupled to the mating toothed configuration, one of the mating toothed configuration and the rollers positionally fixed with respect to the cooling chamber, and an end section reached by the rollers along the movement direction by the closing position of the storage compartment, and a disengagement device for disengaging at least part of the mating toothed configuration from the external toothed configuration of at least one of the two rollers, the disengagement device disposed at the end section and having a disengagement length sufficient to compensate for an oblique positioning of the storage compartment in and counter to the movement direction arising from an offset of the two rollers from one another along the mating toothed configuration.
The invention provides a device that is capable of disengaging at least one of the mating toothed configurations and the external toothed configuration in engagement therewith of the roller from the roller at its section that is reached by the roller at the end of the closing movement of the storage compartment. At such a position, the length of the disengagement is capable of compensating for at least one oblique position of the storage compartment in and counter to its insertion direction, which oblique position arises as a result of the rollers that are rolling along the mating toothed configurations becoming offset from each other by a tooth pitch.
With the invention, when the storage compartment is in the closed position, an oblique position, which may be caused, for example, by a shock-like, eccentric application of force to the storage compartment, is automatically compensated for. As a result, the storage compartment door, which is equipped with a seal, always bears tightly against the opening edge of the access opening to the cooling compartment. As such, a formation of a gap between the seal provided on the storage compartment door and the opening edge of the access opening to the cooling compartment is inevitably avoided. And, even if the storage compartment is incorrectly handled, the specified cooling compartment temperature is always reliably ensured with the storage compartment in the closed position. The closure is reliably ensured because, after each closing procedure, the storage compartment is automatically moved from its oblique position into a positionally correct position, in which the door provided on the storage compartment runs at least substantially parallel to the opening edge of the cooling compartment.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the storage compartment is removably guided into and out of the cooling chamber as a drawer.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, the disengagement device is disposed at the end section and has a disengagement length sufficient to compensate for an oblique positioning of the storage compartment in and counter to the movement direction arising from a tooth pitch offset of the two rollers from one another along the mating toothed configuration.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, the disengagement device is a tooth space that is provided on the mating toothed configuration and is disposed at that end section of the mating toothed configuration that is rolled over by the roller at the end of the closing procedure of the storage compartment.
By the removal of teeth from the mating toothed configuration and, therefore, the provision of a tooth space, an alignment of the storage compartment, which is in an oblique position during the closing procedure, is brought about in a particularly simple manner at the end of the closing procedure. In particular, providing a tooth space means that an oblique position of different extent can also be corrected in a simple manner by the removal of a plurality of teeth from the mating toothed configuration. Moreover, the provision of a tooth space makes it possible to particularly precisely influence the variables (such as tooth module and pitch circle diameterxe2x80x94variables characterizing the external toothed configuration on the roller and determining the extent of the oblique position and, therefore, of the gap arising in the closed position) and therefore to correct the storage compartment, which has originally been set obliquely, with particular positional accuracy. In the event that the mating toothed configuration is produced integrally from a plastic injection molding, a tooth space caused, for example, by the absence of a plurality of teeth can be produced particularly simply.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, the parallel-guiding device has two parts each having the mating toothed configuration for a respective one of the two rollers, each of the mating toothed configurations has teeth with at least one tooth height, the tooth space, and a feeding region for the rollers. The feeding region has teeth with an increasingly rising tooth height at least approximately continuously to a final tooth height and the tooth space is adjoined by the feeding region.
Thus, in addition to the possibility of being able to compensate for an oblique position of the storage compartment, a particularly jolt-free feeding of the externally toothed rollers from the tooth spaces into the mating toothed configuration is ensured.
The mating toothed configurations are disposed in a particularly expedient manner if, in accordance with yet another feature of the invention, it is provided that in each case one of the mating toothed configurations is provided on one of the side walls of the cooling chamber where the side walls are disposed in the insertion direction of the storage compartment.
Mating toothed configurations disposed as such can be disposed in a particularly rigid manner in terms of position and shape. For example, they can be in the form of a U-shaped guide profile that is equipped on one of its limbs with the mating toothed configuration and that is either placed directly onto the side walls or is embedded into the side walls in a recess corresponding to its external contour and is additionally supported there for increasing the dimensional rigidity of the guide profile, by the thermal insulation of the refrigerating unit, which insulation is produced by coating it with foam. In the event that the mating toothed configuration is provided on a limb of a plastic guide profile that is of U-profile-like shape in cross section, the mating toothed configuration can be produced not only in a particularly simple manner with different tooth pitches and tooth sizes, but also can be exchanged at particularly reasonable cost in the event of damage.
The feeding from the tooth-space region into the mating toothed configuration is configured in a particularly user-friendly manner if, in accordance with yet a further feature of the invention, it is provided that the feeding region for the rollers is mounted downstream in tooth spaces in the pull-out direction of the storage compartment from the cooling chamber.
In accordance with yet an added feature of the invention, the disengagement device is configured as a sloping plane that pushes the external toothed configuration of the roller, which is acted upon by an energy accumulator, out of engagement with the mating toothed configuration in the axial direction of the roller immediately before its end section that is rolled over by the external toothed configuration of the roller at the end of the closing movement of the storage compartment. In which case, the roller is supported in the cooling chamber by a running surface. Preferably, the energy accumulator is a spring.
In accordance with yet an additional feature of the invention, the disengagement device is a sloping plane pushing the external toothed configuration out of engagement with the mating toothed configuration in a direction along the given axis immediately before the storage compartment reaches the closing position.
By the possibility of being able to vary its slope, the sloping plane provides the conditions for being able to undertake the movement of the externally toothed rollers, so as to bring them out of engagement or into engagement with the mating toothed configuration, in a particularly targeted manner in accordance with the existing space conditions.
In accordance with again another feature of the invention, the energy accumulator provides a force, and the roller is divided substantially perpendicularly with respect to the given axis into a positionally-fixed section having a smooth-faced running surface and an externally-toothed section displaceably mounted with respect to the given axis, in engagement with the mating toothed configuration; and supported on the positionally-fixed section by the energy accumulator, the externally-toothed section to be brought out of engagement with the mating toothed configuration counter to the force by the sloping plane at least immediately before the roller reaches the end section.
According to a further preferred embodiment of the subject matter of the invention, the roller is divided essentially perpendicularly with respect to its running axis into a positionally fixed section that is equipped with a smooth-faced running surface and an externally toothed section that is mounted displaceably in the axial direction of the roller, is in engagement with the mating toothed configuration and is supported on the positionally fixed section by an energy accumulator. In such a case, the displaceably mounted section is brought out of engagement with the mating toothed configuration counter to the action of the energy accumulator by the sloping plane at least immediately before its end section on the mating toothed configuration. The end section is rolled over at the end of the closing movement of the storage compartment.
As such, and in conjunction with the sloping plane, a particularly simple and reasonably priced support of the storage compartment is provided in the closed state in which the externally toothed section is disengaged from the mating toothed configuration.
In accordance with again a further feature of the invention, the externally-toothed section is to be brought out of engagement with the mating toothed configuration counter to the force by the sloping plane at least immediately before the storage compartment reaches the closing position.
In accordance with a concomitant feature of the invention, a roller of the two rollers has a running surface, the disengagement device is a sloping plane pushing the external toothed configuration out of engagement with the mating toothed configuration in a direction along the given axis approximately before the roller reaches the end section, and the running surface supports the roller in the cooling chamber approximately at the closing position.
Other features that are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a refrigerating unit, it is, nevertheless, not intended to be limited to the details shown because various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.